


Everything is fun and games until someone loses an eye... TAKASUGI WAIT I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THA- AURGH!

by mistellation



Category: Gintama
Genre: Blood, Bonding Time, Freeform, M/M, OOC Takasugi, Shouyo Yoshida’s death, Spoilers, Takes place after the Kurokono arc, gore? kind of?, prank goes too far
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-30 00:22:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16275374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mistellation/pseuds/mistellation
Summary: Okita has the bad habit of playing pranks on Kagura whenever he feels like not doing his job -whatever a tax-robber’s job is anyway- and that, unfortunately, extends to everyone living in the Yorozuya house. In other words, Gin-chan is constantly being disturbed.Okita’s pranks go too far this time.





	Everything is fun and games until someone loses an eye... TAKASUGI WAIT I DIDN’T MEAN IT LIKE THA- AURGH!

**Author's Note:**

> Yo! Well, the moment I watched the Kurokono arc I just felt the urge to write something like this... So here it is :) 
> 
> The Joui4 relationship is one of my favourites, I just can’t help to imagine them being secretely supportive with each other. Kind of missing the days when they were just kids fighting for their ideals, for their freedom, along with their friends. Sometimes they just need to be together once more.

Gintoki should be used to the situation at this point. The yelling, the clattering, occasional barks, more yelling… That was every day’s basis.  
  
But it still was annoying as fuck to be woken up to the damn police on his living room and several holes on the wall.  
  
“-WOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN’T COME-ARU!”  
  
“IT WASN’T ME WHO PUNCHED THE WALL, YOU DAMN BITCH.”  
  
“OH, EXCUSE ME. SHOULD I SPECIFY THAT YOU JUST KICKED  THROUGH IT, BRAT?”  
  
“DETAILS MATTER!”  
  
“THEN NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOUR MOM REALIZED WHAT A DEMON SHE CARRIED IN HER BELLY AND ABORTED IN TIME!”  
  
“YOU’RE ONE TO TALK, RED ONI!”  
  
Gintoki’s bedroom door slid open the most violently a sliding door could open and his twisted expression scanned the living room in search of the yelling. “SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU TWO, PAIN-IN-THE-ASS DUO!”  
  
Kagura changed her expression from her angry scowl to a defenseless pout, pointing at Okita with a trembling finger. “Gin-chan! This tax-robber came to destroy our house-aru! I tried to kick him out but he is harder to get rid of than cockroaches-”  
  
“Who are you calling a cockroach, you pig…”  
  
“OI, STOP THAT” Sadaharu grunted menacingly from behind the couch, but for some reason, he was glaring at Gintoki. Good for nothing dog.  
  
Gintoki pointed at the door as he sent a frown in Okita’s direction, feeling his head throb. Either from hangover or yelling, who knows. “Out! Go play Jungle with the Gorilla boss or mess with Mayora.”  
  
“Tch. Danna saves your this time, bitch,” he muttered to Kagura, bumping their shoulders as he passed by, earning a smack on the back of his head, first from Kagura and then from Gintoki. As soon as he exited the house, a loud knocking followed.  
  
“Oi, Gintoki! What was all that noise? If you break something not even putting up with the rent is gonna make up for it! Do you hear me?!”  
  
Gintoki groaned, holding his head with both hands as Otose continued screaming at him. He felt a tug at the sleeve of his green pajama and looked down to Kagura, who was staring at him. “Gin-chan, breakfast. Fighting with the sadic pig has me starving.”  
  
He should be getting used to it, really. It happened every day, really. WHY WASN’T HE GETTING USED TO IT.

 

* * *

  
  
Sighing for the nth time, Gintoki sipped from his glass. The sake wasn’t even good, so it was really difficult to make it up for the company. Sakamoto was snoring loudly -did he have to be loud even when sleeping? Give him a break, for fuck’s sake- at the left side of the table, facing the floor in a pose that made him look kinda dead. Gintoki felt dead too, after the damn night they had just pulled through. Katsura was curled up in a ball on the right side, his thumb suspiciously close to his mouth, and it made him look annoyingly young.  
  
Takasugi, though, creeped him out the most. He had arrived long after Kurokono had saved them -no one would ever get Gintoki to admit he had been saved from such a pathetic setup, though-, Samakoto and Katsura long before knocked out. He had had the nerve to act as if it hadn’t been his good-for-nothing team’s set up and showed himself shamelessly, smoking the whole night. At this point, Gintoki could only smell the hideous tobacco his ex-comrade liked, and it just reminded him of the damn Hijikata. And that. That annoyed him even more. It was like having two of his teeth rotten and couldn’t be able to chew on either side of his mouth; no way of ignoring the pain. And wasn’t even the worst. It was just what more annoyed him. The worst was where Gintoki’s thoughts had been heading since he put his feet in the damn room. In the meantime all the fuss was going on it had been easy to muffle the reminder from his brain, but once everything went quiet it had all crashed down on him.  
  
His Jouishishi days. His days as Shiroyasha. Shouyou-sensei.

Gintoki shuddered and swatted the thoughts away just to replace them with a new bunch of displeasing things. It was not a secret he wasn’t fond of ghosts in any shape or form, and mixing that with his ex comrades... In other words, it had been a bad night. He had been sincerely scared, both for the fact that he had thought they had let Kurokono die and then forgotten about him and because it had really crossed Gintoki’s mind his ghost had come to take revenge.

Also, Katsura’s shriek had been terrifying. The guy could get a job at a horror movie.  

Gintoki refused to talk to Takasugi. Takasugi said nothing too, which only helped highlight the oddly silent Yorozuya. After hours of cold silence observing Katsura and Sakamoto sleep, Gintoki should have pulled a pun out already. And when the sun began to rise from between the skyline, both men were anxiously waiting for the other two to wake up and say something to lighten the mood.  
  
But it seemed they weren’t feeling like it, because when they returned to life and spotted Takasugi, their chatter was cautious and tense. They eyed Gintoki constantly, almost like they were waiting for the two of them to start a fight to the death, even though Gintoki suspected Katsura himself had a few thing that needed to be talked with Takasugi.

They didn’t fight. Moreover, Takasugi held his _kiseru_ between two slim fingers and nodded his head politely towards his two ex-comrades, asking them how they had been doing. There was a stunned silence in which all of them stared at each other. The last time they had been together, blood had been shredded. Takasugi had made clear he wasn’t going to be polite to any of them, and that he hated them for acting as if the world hadn’t taken their teacher from them. Honestly, it had hurt. To see him again, to see how _broken_ he was… It had hurt.

“SHINSUKE!”  
  
Sakamoto glued himself to Takasugi’s legs, clinging to the shortest with his obnoxious laugh. Takasugi protested and tried to kick him off, but Gintoki noticed he wasn’t trying too hard. A smirk rose on his face, looking at them from his spot on the table. Meanwhile, Katsura had moved closer to them, but he didn’t stand. The look on his eyes was a massive hint that he wanted to say something, _anything_ , to his childhood friend, but he didn’t. He just laced his fingers quietly, pressing his lips into a thin line.

“KINTOKI COME HUG SHINSUKE TOO”, Sakamoto blabbed, voice no way muffled one bit even though he was burying his face in Takasugi’s kimono.  
  
He called Katsura too, but the daggers both of them and Takasugi sent each other with their eyes were enough persuasion.

“Well, if you’re all done with this pathetic gathering, I’m going home”, said Gintoki, getting to his feet. Katsura made a face at the thought of staying there with Takasugi and Sakamoto any longer and stood too, hiding his hands into his _kimono_ sleeves.

“I’ll go with you.”

“I don’t wanna. Get lost.”

“Gintoki”, admonished Katsura with his usual straight face. “We have been attacked tonight. It’s better to stick together in case anything else happens.”

“Then we’re coming too!” Sakamoto said, clinging his arms on Gintoki and Katsura’s shoulders excitedly.

“Oi, listen to me when I talk. I said I don’t wanna see your ugly faces anymore.”

“It’s decided then! Let’s go.”

“OI, DON’T TAG ALONG.”

Gintoki couldn’t shrug them off after that, and the truth is he was already too emotional to try and lose them on his way home. So he let them walk beside him, letting the memories about their friendship and the memories about their sensei swirl on his mind.  
  
And because he hadn’t gotten used to the routine at all, when they got home it took him completely by surprise.  
  
It was still early, so Kagura wasn’t up yet, but that didn’t mean everything was clear. The curtains were down, blocking the weak sunlight from early morning and making the ambient quite dark. But when they opened the front door, there was enough light to see. At first, Gintoki didn’t register the ball-size silhouette on a puddle in the middle of the hallway, right in front of the bathroom door. Katsura was the one who first saw it, and he gasped, taking a step back and walking into Sakamoto, who brought up his hands to hold the Joui as he seemed to trip over. Gintoki looked at the puddle. It had a red tinge, almost completely dark on the dim light, but it was definitely red.  
  
It could have been strawberry syrup. Or ketchup, or jam. It could even have been Kagura’s period, for all Gintoki knew, but it wasn’t. His breath caught on his throat and Sakamoto cursed colorfully at his back. On top of the red puddle, the size of a volleyball ball, lay an oval shape, with long strands sprawled around it, getting soaked on the red liquid almost like…  
  
Gintoki’s legs gave up and he fell to his knees like a rock, eyes wide and mouth gaping in shock. At first, he thought it was Kagura, but the hair was too long to be her. Also, Gintoki recognized the sight of it too well after having spent more than a decade having nightmares about it. “Sho- _Shouyou_ …”, he whispered, barely registering Katsura’s trembling voice as he repeated it couldn’t be their sensei’s head, repeating that he had died long, long ago.  
  
Gintoki knew that. He damn _knew_ that. But he had had a night full of remembering those days, the war, Shouyou-sensei, even seeing those three idiots, he had been drinking, he had a massive hangover and he couldn’t help when all his horror and regret swirled on his stomach. Gintoki could see Katsura and Takasugi, tied up on the ground, matching horrified expressions on their faces as he walked towards the man that had shown them the path they wanted to walk their lives through. He could see how his sensei’s –his _father’s_ – shoulders relaxed as he approached him. His gratitude still echoed in Gintoki’s chest, muffling momentarily the sharp pain he fully felt afterwards.

He retched on the floor in front of him, emptying his stomach as his guts spasmed brutally. Surprisingly, it was Takasugi who reached out to him.  
  
“Gintoki…”, he kneeled beside him, hands carefully resting on his shoulders with an awkward stiffness. He could hear the well-hidden pain in Takasugi’s voice -he could still hear his _screams,_ hear him _begging_ -, the effort of carrying on he had mastered through years. The restraint in his voice was clear now, like a string being pulled to its limit, seconds away from snapping.   “Gintoki, look at me.”  
  
But Gintoki couldn’t. He could just look incredulously at the decapitated head laying on his hallway, a grotesque accusation for him.  
  
Katsura’s voice broke in the middle of his mantra at some point and Sakamoto’s gun clicked when he pulled it out, his other arm still around Katsura’s shoulder. “Who’s there? Is anybody here?”  
  
Gintoki let out a dry sob. Right now, he couldn’t think of anybody who hated him _and_ knew where he lived. No one that knew about what he had done during the war. No one that would want to punish him for Shouyo. So the explanation his tired mind pulled out was that it was his sensei’s spirit, back from Yomi to torment Gintoki’s rotten soul. He was there to make him feel more guilty because he would never feel guilty enough for what he had done…  
  
“... Danna...?” A small voice came from the living room. Takasugi stood, drawing his sword out of its shred with a dangerous hiss of the metal. Gintoki lifted his tortured expression to the sudden light that came when someone pressed the switch on, and Okita’s confused face came to his blurry sight. Gintoki blinked, horrified by the tears that had formed in his eyes and he looked back at Shouyou-sensei’s head-  
  
“Dear stars…!” Katsura breathed behind him, fighting with Sakamoto to get free of the half hug, but his legs were still trembling.  
  
In front of them, past Gintoki’s vomit mess, was a fake head, laying on a puddle of fake blood. It was a doll’s head, probably from a mannequin, with a blonde wig. Gintoki blinked again before looking back to Okita, the pieces clicking on his mind.  
  
A prank. _Just_ a prank.

Takasugi didn’t put down his sword, his one eye locked on Okita with enough fury the captain rested a hand on his own sword’s handle, sending questioning looks in Gintoki’s direction. 

Behind Okita, the cupboard’s door slipped open and a sleepy voice poured like honey on the floor as Kagura poked her head out. “Wha’s al’ fuss ‘bout…?”  
  
It took her a second to spot Gintoki, still on the floor behind Takasugi of all people in a defensive pose and the girl was instantly at her feet, flying down the hallway to his side. “Gin-chan!”  
  
Takasugi didn’t move and Kagura rounded him easily, kneeling in front of Gintoki. She pressed her hands to every part of his torso she could reach, avoiding stepping on the barf puddle in a miraculous way and apparently looking for wounds. She spared not even a glance to the bloody mess behind her, nor she did to the four other men on the hall until she had made sure Gintoki wasn’t injured. But she kept looking at his pale face, his unfocused gaze drifting from one place to another unaware of all the worry in his kid’s face.

Kagura glanced at the standing figures by the door and frowned when she spotted Katsura. “Zura, what happened to- Zura?”  
  
Katsura was not by any means recovered yet, and he leaned defeatedly onto Sakamoto, who had lowered his gun but not put it away yet.  
  
Takasugi cleared his throat, making a physical effort to lower his sword. His eye didn’t leave Okita, but he talked to Kagura: “Nothing happened to him. Your friend just scared everyone a bit with... _that_ .” To both Okita and Kagura, the fake head on the floor meant nothing, but that didn’t help the anger to stay out of Takasugi’s voice. He was leaning forward, ready to jump on the Shinsengumi’s captain and introduce him to his sword; but for some reason, he stayed near Gintoki. “Gintoki has drunk tonight, that why he’s in such a sorry state.”  
  
Kagura didn’t seem to calm down one bit. She kept searching for Gintoki’s eyes, balling her hands into a fistful of Gintoki’s kimono. “Gin-chan?”  
  
It was the fear in her voice what brought him back. Gintoki blinked again, inhaling sharply as he focused on Kagura and her scrunched-up face. “... ‘m sorry…”  
  
Apparently, that wasn’t the answer she was waiting for, because she insisted on staying on his room as he slept and even curled up against him in his futon.  
  
Well… All of them did. Not curling up against him in his futon, but staying in his room. Okita had cleaned up the unfortunate prank -no one else dared to touch it-, he even cleaned up Gintoki’s vomit, and he last checked up on the Yorozuya before leaving, making no comments about the two criminals on his presence. The rest of them were scattered on his room: Katsura was tangled with Sakamoto in a mess of limbs and clothes against a wall, and Takasugi had seated himself on the window, his _kiseru_ hanging from his lips but no smoke coming out. 

Kagura had calmed down as soon as she had both Gintoki and a blanket near her. Once she had made sure they were safe, she had practically passed out.

“You don’t have to stay,” murmured Gintoki, eyes closed.

There was a humourless but still obnoxious laugh. “Shut up. Just shut up.”

“Sorry for the trouble,” added Katsura, as polite as ever even though his voice was muffled by Sakamoto’s neck.

Gintoki sighed. “Today, that’s my line. I don’t… Sorry ‘bout that. Kids are stupid, but they don’t really mean it.”

“You mean it was a casualty?” Sakamoto sounded incredulous. 

“Well, I didn’t exactly explain anyone about Shouyou. So. Yeah.”

“What an unfortunate coincidence…”

“Can we _not_ talk about that?” Takasugi detached his gaze momentarily off the window to glare at the two curly-haired men. “I don’t think any of you is going to make it until tomorrow if your tongues keep working.” 

“Takasugi,” called Katsura, making a pause to make sure his childhood friend was listening, “save it. Not today, please.”

“I’m just saying…” he sighed, resting his head on the wall. “Can we just not?” 

“Sure”, spat Gintoki, his voice way more low than he wanted it to be just for the sake of Kagura’s sleep. “What do you want to talk about? I think we never got to discuss how you made the Harusame your allies. Or how you tried to kill Zura and me.”

“He did that?” Yelped Sakamoto. “Shinsuke, you’re an idiot.”

“Get lost!”

“No, you get lost! And, preferrably, don’t ever come ba-”

“Oi, stop that!” Katsura untangled himself from Sakamoto for a second, reprimanding the two men firmly. Kagura stiffened, but Gintoki quickly stroked her back and she went back to snoring without waking up. “That’s why we can’t even gather for a single night and drink together, because you keep acting like children! Solve your shit with each other already.”

Takasugi giggled that way of his that made him sound absolutely crazy. “We are not fighting the same war anymore, Zura. There is no reason to stick together.”

“Then why are you still here?”

That shutted Takasugi. For a moment, they were back on the camp around a fire, attending each other’s wounds and drinking to forget the possibility of any of them dying the next day. For a moment, they were still friends.

Gintoki sighed heavily. “Y’all think too much.”

Eventually, they stopped talking and let the early morning come to actual day. Takasugi and Gintoki were the only ones still awake, Katsura and Sakamoto were out not long after finishing the conversation, even though Sakamoto had had to run his fingers calmly through Katsura’s long hair before the latest fell asleep.  
  
But Gintoki couldn’t even close his eyes. He had calmed down eventually, but he was still… way too awake to sleep. He was exhausted, though, and he felt grateful that it was way too early for Shinpachi to come yet, so he didn’t have to deal with him.  
  
“You still blame yourself and carry that burden on your own.”  
  
Gintoki shifted his head to look at Takasugi, but his one eye was fixed out the tiny sleek of the curtain.  
  
“Damn, you got me”, he simply said, tone lighter than he felt inside. “What betrayed me? The puking or the leaning onto you?”  
  
“When did you lean onto me?”  
  
“I hope that’s what you say if someone asks.”  
  
A  huff that Gintoki was suspicious was a laugh came from Takasugi’s direction and some of the tension in Gintoki’s chest melted. He had been so focused on not talking to Takasugi that he had almost forgotten what it felt like to actually talk to him. Sure, the fact that that bastard had tried to kill him was kind of a good reason to be untrusty, but right now it didn’t seem like he was gonna try anything.  
  
“Taka-chan was worried for Gin-chan, huh?”  
  
Takasugi’s _kiseru_ jerked and Gintoki was sure the man had gritted his teeth. “Don’t be ridiculous.”  
  
Gintoki waited for him to say something else; to make up excuses or insult him, but Takasugi remained silent. He only spoke again when Gintoki opened his mouth to keep saying nonsense.  
  
“We all failed to protect sensei that day. Not just you. So don’t trouble your perm-haired head over things that already happened and look forward. I’m going to destroy the world anyway. Enjoy it while you can, idiot.”  
  
None of them was going to admit it, but there was a soft ring in Takasugi’s voice he hadn’t heard since they were brats, and that made him soft too. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Kagura snuggled closer to Gintoki every time he talked, as if she sensed movement, and her little face scrunched up more as she drooled over Gintoki’s shoulder. It made him feel guilty for scaring her. He hadn’t meant to do it, obviously, but he was aware of how freaked out Kagura had been to wake up to such a creepy scene. Gintoki brushed carefully the hair out of Kagura’s face, earning another frown and an incomprehensible mumble of annoyance.  
  
“There’s no way I can enjoy it knowing you want to take it away, jerk.”  
  
Takasugi turned to look at him from behind his emo bangs. His feverish green eye was way more calmed than Gintoki had expected it, but the usual rictus of madness in his mouth was in place. “Then fucking suffer.”  
  
“Like hell I will. Shut it before I cut your tongue off.”  
  
“Try it, scum.”  
  
Later that day, when Shinpachi slid Gintoki’s door open to take him out of bed, he seemed to attempt waking everyone up with a surprised shriek that only caused Kagura to jerk upright and throw a pillow at him, while Katsura and Sakamoto tangled further into each other, groaning. Takasugi jumped away from Gintoki’s lips, but not fast enough to avoid the young samurai staring incredulously at the two of them.  
  
Gintoki had never been redder in his life.

 

**Author's Note:**

> . . . Honestly, I’m very happy of how it turned out, specially the end. And,, very sorry?? Somehow???
> 
> Anyway, kudos and comments are the fuel for a writer’s soul, so please feed me!


End file.
